On Reformation Sunday, the team worshiped with the people of historic Ebeneezer Lutheran Church (now 270 years old) led by Rev. Vivian and Eric Roberts, formerly of Zion Lunenburg.
Canada-Guyana Mental Health Engagement
From Oct. 23 – Oct. 30, 2013, the Eastern Synod helped sponsor an interdisciplinary Canadian team considering engagement opportunities with the mental health system in our Companion Synod nation, Guyana. TV Interview here.
In a territory the size of New Brunswick, Guyana currently has three practicing psychiatrists for a national population of about 750,000. Canadian participants included Dr. Sujay and Brenna Patel and Rev. Dr. Peter Kuhnert (pastor of Maranatha Lutheran) from Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Chaplain Rev. Ram Kalap from Homewood Hospital in Guelph and Rev. John O’Connor, a long-term ELCIC chaplain who has spent 3 months annually over the past ten years teaching first-year nursing students in Guyana’s capital, Georgetown.
The interdisciplinary team met with ELCG President Rev. Moses Prashad learning about mental health in Guyana from the perspective of the clergy, congregations and the community, worked clinically alongside Guyana’s longest serving psychiatrist Dr. Bhiro Harry, had introductory talks with Guyana’s Minister of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, and along with nursing students met some of the 170 life-long residents of Guyana’s national psychiatric hospital while on a tour of their hundred year old home.
